INTERVIEWS

John Miller in conversation with Laura López Paniagua on the occasion of "The Insanity of Place" at Galerie Barbara Weiss. The interview, specifically, revolves around "Primary Structures"(2017), a PowerPoint work in which the artist juxtaposes words and images in a meditation on mortality.

Is life dramatic or tragic? Internationally acclaimed and award-winning Portuguese director Pedro Costa talks to four by three magazine about the nature of reality, ethics, the responsibility of an artist, his working unique methods, time and death, tragedy and drama, music and sound and the importance of criticism.

Has cinema died? British film theorist and avant-garde filmmaker Laura Mulvey talks to four by three magazine about the ontological shift from celluloid to digital, reality, temporality and truth, addressing how film is caught between stillness and movement and how death is ingrained in the materiality of film.

Where do you put the camera to get a glimpse of our imminent extinction? Critically-acclaimed Romanian director Cristi Puiu talks to four by three magazine about cinema as entertainment and art, the responsibility of an artist, reality and fiction, truth and being, his fascination with death and Albert Camus, asking what makes life worth living?

How do you succeed as a filmmaker, despite the increasing challenges? Award-winning British director Joanna Hogg talks to four by three magazine about her films and collective A Nos Amours, the fascination and fallibility of memory, artistic inspiration and expression and the importance of cinema.

How does extraordinary sensibility manifest itself through the moving image on screen? American director Kelly Reichardt talks to four by three magazine about her latest film Certain Women, the journey of life and how to answer the question of how to live.

Is cinema saturated with the wrong intentions? Iranian filmmaker, writer and human right activist Mohsen Makhmalbaf talked to four by three about the purpose of cinema, how it relates to art, politics and philosophy, while recounting his collaboration with Abbas Kiarostami on Close-Up and the continuous censorship he is subject to.

What would it mean for philosophy to listen? What does silence or the self sound like? French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy talks to four by three magazine about the responsibility of philosophy, his approach to the arts, the noise of being and the difference between seeing and hearing oneself.

Can artistic expression flourish under censorship? Or is the freedom of speech essential for creativity? Acclaimed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul talks to four by three about the medium of film, questions concerning time and how these relate to Buddhism and what cinema teaches us about perception, dreams, death, Plato’s cave and reality.

How can art introduce ambiguity into our experience of the everyday? Artist Becky Beasley talks to four by three about her practice, muteness as a form of resistance, the liminal space between photography and sculpture, and the place of death in the photographic image.

How does sound transform the spaces we inhabit? four by three talks to artist Susan Philipsz about her practice, sound as a form of sculpture, the politics of silence and song, vocalising forgotten histories and the ethical challenges of remembrance.

Is nihilism the most important philosophical problem of our present? Philosopher Raymond Geuss talks to four by three in this video about our misconception of nihilism, outlining three ways of questioning it, while asking whether nihilism is a philosophical or a historical problem and whether we are truly nihilists or might simply be confused.

What does it mean to be human and is art able to capture it? Award-winning Swedish director Roy Andersson talks to four by three about his Living Trilogy, contemporary cinema, the relationship between aesthetics and ethics, the frailty of the human condition, while addressing the purpose of art and cinema.

What did Nietzsche think about democracy and equality? Philosopher Maudemarie Clark talks to four by three about Nietzsche’s political views, the possibilities for feminist readings of his work and why he saw value in democratic institutions.

Why did Nietzsche think that morality is harmful to humanity? In this two part interview philosopher Maudemarie Clark talks to four by three about Nietzsche’s ethics, morality as an internalized form of cruelty, and the importance of genealogy as a tool for ethical criticism.

What is the relationship between contemporary capitalism and art? Art critic and historian Hal Foster talks to four by three magazine about the shifting practices of the avant-garde, artists Isa Genzken and Thomas Hirschhorn, while addressing whether art can resist the present nihilistic world in an age often defined as post-critical.

How do you depict religious abuse and guilt in the aesthetic context of cinema? Director Pablo Larraín talks to four by three about his latest film The Club, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Berlinale 2015, the ethical complexity of theological rationale, the responsibility of filmmakers and the violence of our own consciousness.

How can architecture create and utilize public spaces? four by three talks to the architectural collective Assemble about their Turner Prize winning project 'Granby Four Streets', the aspirations of utopianism and the social nature of their practice.

Does the world suffer from relativism and nihilism or is it imbued with meaning after all? Philosopher Raymond Geuss talks to four by three about his book A World Without Why, why clarity can be a function of repression, constructive versus radical criticism, and the role of art within philosophy.

Does the world itself exist? German philosopher Markus Gabriel talks to four by three about his latest book Why the World Does Not Exist, tackling the big questions of ontology, why we should abandon metaphysics and why his theory of fields of sense can help us overcome the failures of post-modernism.

How does sound relate to our shared reality and particularity in the world? Artist and writer Salomé Voegelin talks to four by three about her book Sonic Possible Worlds, Lewis' possible world theory, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, and the importance of listening.

What is the relationship between rehearsal and revolutionary political change? four by three talks to artist Leonor Serrano Rivas about her recent body of work, exploring the importance of the chorus, the ideas of Augusto Boal, and the role of improvisation in her practice.

How can painting express an experience beyond an appearance? four by three talks to Phoebe Unwin about her current solo exhibition 'Distant People and Self-Soothing Objects' at Wilkinson Gallery, discussing painting, photography, the transitory and the human significance of distraction

Can art help us to see ourselves clearly? four by three talks to Joshua Oppenheimer about The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, giving an insight into how to break an imposing silence of fear and guilt through cinema.

What is the drama of Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy? Philosophers Simon Critchley and Alexis Dianda talk to four by three about their latest book 'The Problem with Levinas', reading Levinas in dramatic terms, his troubled relationship with Martin Heidegger and the patriarchal character of his work.

What is the self? How does the self relate to consciousness, authenticity and moral responsibility? Philosopher Stephen Mulhall talks to four by three about the self's non-identity drawing on Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger's conceptions of freedom, nothingness and finitude.

Can music make sense of the world or even transcend it? Philosopher and jazz musician Andrew Bowie talks to four by three about the connection between music, aesthetics, language and time with reference to Adorno and Heidegger, about the relationship between philosophy, arts and science, asking: why does art matter?

Does an artist perceive or invent his creation? And how does imagination relate to freedom, beauty and nature? Philosopher Paul Guyer talks to four by three about the relationship between aesthetics and ethics in the work of Immanuel Kant, Hegel's rejection thereof and Schopenhauer's positive conception of the aesthetic experience.

What is time? Has our relation to temporality changed time? Norwegian philosopher Espen Hammer talks to four by three about our shifting time consciousness, Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas about circular time, the promises and dissatisfactions with modern times and how art might be the key to new existential possibilities.

Where does inspiration come from and how can you maintain it? Canadian singer-songwriter Lydia Ainsworth’s music defies easy classification. She talks to four by three about her album Right from Real, working on and dreaming about the future and how to maintain your creativity over a long period of time.